Two girls. Two secrets.
Only one can survive.
Years before Nelle Wychthorn plans her escape, Tabitha Catt may unearth something in a Horned God's lair that is the key to freedom.
Desperate to save her beloved aunt from a dark curse, Tabitha is out t...
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Valarie found me kneeling on the grass, not knowing what to do with the festering resentment that clawed at my insides. We clung to one another, both of us trying to make sense of what had happened, and what we couldn't do—lash out and retaliate. Neither of us needed to speak; the twin-link hummed with shared despair and impotent rage.
Sirro had escorted Jurgana from the Deniauds, no doubt heading straight to the Emporium, and now a different kind of chaos descended on the lawns. Servants and upper ranks alike tended to the wounded and calmed those who had gone into shock. An eeriness had settled across the blood-drenched lawns with banks of swirling mist and smoke that were tinged blue from the smattering of wildfyre that still burned. It was quieter now, too. No more screams or terrified shrieks for help. Instead, there were agony-laced moans from the wounded and heart-wrenching keening from those who had survived for those who had not.
"We n-need t-to help," Valarie murmured before she pulled herself free from my embrace. My sister hurried off to join Byron who was helping the wounded to the makeshift infirmary set up in the Banquet Hall, while I selfishly had only one thought in my head—find Tabitha.
Exhaustion limned every muscle in my body. I rose, picking up my twin bastard swords, dousing the lightning before I sheathed them, and set about searching for Tabitha. My ruined shoes stepped through sludge and mud, piles of dust, and skirted around debris. I was terrified I'd find her face amongst the glassy vacant-eyed dead.
It wasn't until I heard a familiar feminine voice that I puffed out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Tabitha was speaking with Romain Deniaud, and the icy fear in my gut thawed. Tabitha disappeared into the mansion, and soon after I spotted my sister entering too, following Yveta Troelsen who was bedraggled with a dazed look about her. Valarie called out to the other girl, worried.
A sudden thought occurred to me. I'd given Tabitha my word that I would steal more glamour potion, but I hadn't. There hadn't been any time with Jurgana's wrathful might. I glanced up at the mansion with its soft curves and aristocratic towers, beginning to flick through my options when in my periphery I caught some thing charging me.
I whirled around, a hand instinctively going for the blade strapped to my thigh.
Holy fuck, the thing looked as if it had escaped Hazus, Collector of Souls, and crawled out of the pits of Nine Hells. At first, I thought it was one of Jurgana's beasts that had somehow survived Sirro's unleashing of power. Then I realized that it was storming toward me on two legs. Eyes—brown human eyes—and clenched straight teeth were set in a face oozing with primordial black sludge and fixed on me with blazing ferocity.
I hurriedly backed up, wondering who the hells it was. Man or woman, they were short and stocky. I stilled, squinted, canting my upper body forward—Rosa Battagli?
Rosa reached me with an enraged gleam in her eyes that seemed to make them glow. She let out an ear-piercing scream and kicked out with a bare foot.
I skipped backward. Something caught behind my legs and I stumbled, falling on my ass onto a half-burnt bale, the stench of smoky hay assaulting my nostrils. I stared wide-eyed at Rosa, startled.
